Joe Nocera

It's an unusual ladder.

And this is some of the stuff that I just find so unbelievable.

That attic had been looked at a dozen times by investigators after Hauptmann was arrested.

The home that the Hauptmanns were living in was taken over by a police lieutenant who moved in.

He was living in the house.

Yes.

And he's the one who comes to them and says, hey, look at this hole in the attic.

So let me give you the denouement, as they say.

Please.

David Wilentz, the prosecutor, gets up.

And he's going through his closing statement.

And he says, and then Hauptman took an instrument and he hit the baby over the head and crushed his skull.

Now, there had not been one word of testimony to this effect.

The testimony had always been, well, the baby must have fallen and cracked his head on the ground.

To bring up a new allegation in a closing argument, that is like against every rule in the book.

Yet neither the defense attorney nor the judge

said hang on here you know we we can't allow this did helpman take the stand himself he did did he help himself yeah not really he kind of got chewed up they caught him in a lie about the uh gold certificates his lack of language skills you know hurt him badly his lawyer hurt him badly um his lawyer was being hurt paid for by hearst the hearst newspaper chain

which had a vested interest in wanting a salacious trial, which they certainly got.

Wow.

I've never heard that before.